ND Obamacare enrollment falls way short of expectations

BISMARCK, N.D. — The national deadline for enrollment in Obamacare has come and gone, and North Dakota officials are now awaiting word on the final state tally. But according to a count reported to state Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm’s office, the numbers are not anywhere close to what was predicted.

As of April 1, insurance companies offering policies through the federal exchange in North Dakota combined for 3,707 effectuated policies covering 6,110 lives.

The numbers for effectuated policies and covered lives for Medica are lower in this report from Hamm’s office, compared to a report prepared by the commissioner last month for the Legislature. In the previous report, Medica claimed 906 effectuated policies covering 1,202 lives.

An effectuated policy is one that has been both selected and paid for. Nationally, the Obama administration has reported that as many as 7.5 million policies have been selected through the Obamacare exchanges, but it has refused to say how many of those policies have been effectuated.

Hamm’s office has been tracking effectuated policies for North Dakota. While no federal numbers are available for comparison in April, in March just more than half of the 5,238 selected policies reported by the federal government had been effectuated.

Nationally, estimates have suggested that 15 percent to 20 percent of policies have not been effectuated.